Using images to find additional information

- In two previous installments ofThe Practicing Photographer, we've looked at a projectthat Jim Heid has been working on.Jim you've been going through a boxof old family photos that are more than justold family photos, there's a lot of fascinatinghistory here, and you've been scanning them,adding metadata, we've talked about all of that.There's another layer here to your project,and another step that you're going throughafter you've got things in the computer.I want to talk about that now, because I thinkit's fascinating.- I call it photo forensics.And really, what it is is kind of dipping my toesinto the waters of being a photo historian.

There are people who are experts at recognizingclothing styles and car styles and building stylesand can look at a photo that doesn't have anythingwritten on the back, doesn't have any historyassociated with it, and be able to identifythe era or the time or the place where it was taken.And that's what I've been doing withsome of the photos here.- You've got some photos going back 100 years almost.- Yeah, and needless to say, those peopleare sadly not with us anymore and so,oftentimes, I want to be able to do the detective workthat it takes to find out when a photo was taken or where.

Here's an example on the screen,this is my mom and dad at a banquet in my hometownof Pittsburgh, PA.And that's all I know about it,or that's all I knew about it.But what I do is just kind of basically zoom inand explore, and look for detailsthat I can use to search on.If we zoom in on the photo here,we can see that there's a program,it says, that looks like the word anniversary.There's pack of Kents, so we knew we had a smokerat the table.There's Variety Club, my dad was a memberof the Variety Club.

A 30th anniversary, it looks like that says,so there's a lot of information in this photothat I can then take into a search engineand then use to try to figure out when the photo was taken.There's a website called Newspapers.comthat is a subscription based websitethat has hundreds upon hundreds of newspapersfrom around the world, going back to the 1800s.And so, I have a subscription to Newspapers.com.- And there's a searchable text?These aren't just pictures of-- Exactly, it's pictures of the newspapers,but they're also searchable.

So I went to Newspapers.com and I did a searchfor the things that I knew.Pittsburgh, I knew a rough date range here,I knew this was some time in the 40s or the 50s.And I knew it had something to do withthe Variety Club and I knew it had somethingto do with an anniversary, because allthat information was there.So what that gave me was this clippingfrom The Pittsburgh Press that has a little blurbin it that says, Variety Club plans for 30th anniversary.

And if I zoom in further on that, I can seethat this date is, this is from 1957,but now I see that it was scheduled for November 24at the Penn Sheraton Hotel in Pittsburgh.- [Ben] Wow, so you got not only date,you got location.- I got date, I got location, and I gotevent specifics, based on just kind of looking aroundand seeing what was on the top of that tableat the banquet.- That's very cool.- There's another example here that I have.Here's a beautiful photo of my childhood cat.(laughs)Underneath an edition of The Pittsburgh Press,and well, there's a headline, that's got to besearchable text, right?- [Ben] Right.

- [Jim] So again, a trip into Newspapers.com revealedthat very headline, now this is back in the daywhen newspapers would print several differenteditions in the course of a day.So, earlier in the day, clearly, this headlinedeserved to be in all caps.Later in the day, they pressed the shift keyand put the caps- - [Ben] Okay, alright.- But that's obviously that same paper.There's the same headline, those are the same photos.We zoom in on it and you see that this is theJanuary 9, 1973 edition of The Pittsburgh Press.

So just like that, I've dated, or come very closeto dating exactly when that photo was taken.Now this is a very uninspired photo of my cat,but there were 11 other photos on that rollof Kodak Instamatic film, some of whichare a lot more meaningful than that one.Just like that, I know that this was takenin the winter of 1973, probably in January of 1973.- And at the same time, you can kind of glanceat this newspaper, it's putting you a little bitin the time and the space of that.- Absolutely. - Seeing the adsand the stories that are going on, it's a reminderof what's going on and that informs your viewing.

- It just helps contextualize the whole thingand turns this just random looking photointo something that has a real touchstone.And it's just been a fun kind of little detective work.There are other photos that I have that a cornerof a Life Magazine, or the corner of the photohas a copy of Life Magazine on a coffee tableand there are websites that list, that show thumbnailsof every cover of every issue of Life Magazine.So this is fun to kind of explore,find some little, seemingly meaningless detailon a photo that allows you to completelyunlock the story behind that photo.

- Yeah, how do you then keep from just going throughand browsing every cover of Life Magazine?- Well, that's a different rabbit hole.- Oh, okay. (both laugh)Very cool, so what's left on this project?- Well I have a lot more to scan,and then I have the chore of the decision ofwhat to do with all of the originals.Obviously I'm going to keep them,in a world of photo archiving, every one of themshould be in its own glassine envelopeand they should be stored in a cool, dry place,in an iron mountain secure storage facility kind of place.

So far I'm not doing that.A couple of thousand thing that I've scannedare living in a bankers box and probably not evenan acid free bankers box, so don't hate me.But that is a decision that I have to faceand I'm not really quite sure am I going to investthe money to put 1200 items into individual glassineenvelopes or am I just going to kind of get anacid free box and store them all at onceand just keep them cool and dry as I have been.- Because of your dad's career, you've got apretty amazing document of the historyof a certain part of show business.Is that something someone might be interested in?- Oh I think so.

In fact, there is the Heinz History Centerin Pittsburgh, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian,I've already been in touch with one of theircurators and they would love this collection.So I may well end up donating those originalsto them and let them buy the glassine envelopesto keep them safe. (both laugh)- We got one more aspect of this project to talk aboutthat we can't talk about yet,because it's not done, but you have employed a serviceto scan some stuff for you.I'm very excited to hear what that's going to bring.And we'll be talking about that in a futureepisode of Practicing Photographer.

Jim, thanks a lot, this is really fascinating.- My pleasure Ben.

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Author

Updated

8/9/2018

Released

5/19/2013

In The Practicing Photographer, photographer and teacher Ben Long shares a weekly serving of photographic instruction and inspiration. Each installment focuses on a photographic shooting scenario, a piece of gear, or a software technique. Each one concludes with a call to action designed to inspire you to pick up your camera (or your mouse or smartphone) to try the technique for yourself.

Skill Level Beginner

29h 55m

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2,639,924

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